EASTON – As the rain poured down outside Tuesday afternoon, it was a storm of activity inside the Oliver Ames Robotics Club workshop.

More than a dozen students were busy packing up the creation they’ve been working on for the past six weeks .

More than $10,000 in donations and countless hours of manpower have gone into the robot they’ve named the Iron Curtain. Now they are taking part in a national competition. And these students are already making history.

“We’re very lucky, our club has never been to the national competition before,” said Michael Brown. The 18-year-old senior is one of the co-founders of the Easton Robotics Club. The national competition is being held in St. Louis, Missouri next week. The FIRST (For inspiration and recognition of science and technology) competition has more than 300 clubs taking part from all over the country.

The Iron Curtain robot made its way to to the event by way of a wildcard vote from another team. “We’ve already made it farther than in any other year,” said 16-year-old sophomore Thomas Canty. He’s helped build and design the robot. “I’m nervous because I am also driving it during the competition,” he said.

All of the robots that are entered into the competition must be fabricated to withstand the rigors of competition. In this case, the 119-pound machine was designed to basically play basketball. It can push a ball with its arms, as well as block other shots.

There is a strategy to the Iron Curtain’s design. “It’s strictly a defensive robot,” said Jack Duffy-Protentis. The 16-year-old sophomore helped to design and build the robot. “It has a built-in bar and two side doors that help it deflect and bat balls.”

The FIRST competition changes the tasks that the robots must perform every year. The model they built last year was able to shoot Frisbees and do a chin-up. But one thing doesn’t change. “The whole idea is to get our team to work, design and build together,” said Brown. That teamwork has already taken the team to competitions in Rhode Island and Northeastern University.

Eight members of the Easton Robotics Club will be taking a long bus ride out to St. Louis during April vacation next week for the competition.

They will be lugging along some spare doors that Duffy-Protentis made, as well as materials to fix the Iron Curtain if it gets dinged up in competition. “It’s working a lot better than I thought,” said Canty. “Our strategy is just to get noticed.”

Page 2 of 2 - Jennifer Bray may be reached at jbray@enterprisenews.com or follow her on Twitter @JenniferB_ENT.